When you enter a restaurant and spot a health inspection notice posted on the wall indicating that the restaurant has received a rating of 70 or below, would you eat there? Probably not. By the same token, I am sure that you don't want to expose birds to often-fatal diseases while eating at your backyard bird diner.

Now that November is here, more than likely you haven’t seen a ruby-throated hummingbird in your backyard for quite some time. My wife and I were fortunate to see one as late as Halloween eve. However, because we haven’t spotted one since, I guess it is safe to say that it, too, has departed on its epic flight to its wintering grounds across the Gulf of Mexico.

The bird that controls the air space over our yards throughout spring and summer is the ruby-throated hummingbird. Although it is so small that 10 can be mailed for the price of a first-class stamp, no other bird can threaten its aerial superiority. As is the case with supersonic aircraft that coarse the skies of the world, this feathered dynamo operates on a high-energy fuel. In the hummingbird’s case, the fuel is sugar.

The winter of 2009-2010 is one we will long remember. Snow has blanketed the state from Rising Fawn to the peanut fields of South Georgia. If that wasn’t enough, temperatures have plummeted into the teens. This caused the cost of heating our homes to soar skyward faster than our national debt. Homeowners who had the foresight to winterize their homes by caulking the cracks around windows and doors, and took other measures to reduce heat loss, actually are being rewarded with lower energy bills.

Now that the Peach State is in the icy grip of winter, it’s hard to imagine that a handful of birds are actually nesting. One of these is the great horned owl, and it may be sitting atop a nest in your backyard right now.

While drinking a cup of hot, steaming coffee on a recent cold winter morning, I noticed that most of the wildlife activity in my backyard centered on my bird feeders. Nearby, a nesting box stood like a silent sentinel watching the parade of birds and squirrels dining at my wildlife café.

While it appeared the box served no purpose this time of the year, I knew better. One late afternoon about a week before, as the sun was seemingly dissolving on the western horizon, I just happened to see two bluebirds fly into the box.

There are a number of birds that we associate with Christmas. Some such as the robin, dove and goldfinch owe their association to this holiday because legend tells us they were present at the birth of Christ. Others are linked with Christmas because they are commonly depicted on Christmas cards. Over the years I have received Christmas cards featuring birds such as ducks, geese, blue jays, quail, chickadees and, of course, the all-time favorite – the cardinal.

Later this month our homes will be visited by an odd assortment of tiny goblins, witches, ghosts and other strange characters. They will arrive at our front door under a cloak of darkness, and utter three words that we once repeated ourselves too many years ago, “Trick or treat?”